Expect an 'intense show'

Thursday

Jul 3, 2014 at 8:31 PMJul 3, 2014 at 8:39 PM

Mike Lamb Staff Writer @mlambdispatch

BARSTOW — “Incredibly intense” is how Steve Miller describes the firing off of shells during a fireworks show.He should know. He’s been involved with fireworks shows since 1983 when he was working with the Newberry Springs Fire Department. Miller said back then fire departments usually handled fireworks shows.“Most people for the first time they are within 300 feet are literally wide-eyed,” Miller said. “When those 8-inch shells go off the ground, the whole ground shakes for hundreds of feet. You can feel the percussion under your feet. Needless to say there’s plenty of percussion in the air. Lots of noise.“There’s a shell going off about every 40 seconds with a big burst of fire. You figure there’s enough energy sitting in the bottom of that tube to lift anywhere from a pound and a half to 6 pounds a thousand feet in the air and do it in a second and a half. That’s a whale of acceleration. Some of those shells have four ounces of gunpowder in them.”Miller and his crew were busy Thursday morning doing the not-so-exciting part of the fireworks show process. The crew was unloading the shells off the truck in 100-degree heat at Robert A. Sessions Memorial Sportspark in Barstow. Miller said he has been in charge of the Barstow show for several years. Miller lives in Newberry Springs and most of his crew consists of family or close friends who live in the Barstow area. “I keep crews down to people I know real well and have the ability to pay close attention to detail,” Miller said. He is required to have a license to conduct fireworks shows and he faces state and federal background checks. “Not just anybody can do it,” he said.Miller drove the truck with the fireworks inside on a designated route from Rialto. He has to study 40 pages of documents and inspect his truck before driving it. He has to meet Department of Transportation motor carrier requirements and possess a commercial driver’s license. And he’s mandated to stay with the product the whole time — before and during the show.“This stuff can be incredibly dangerous if not handled right,” Miller said. “If handled right, it’s very safe.”Miller said the Barstow Fourth of July show is getting bigger. And he said directing a fireworks show is getting more complicated. “It takes a lot more focus than it did 15 years ago.”Miller said Friday’s Barstow show will feature 800 shells, ranging from 3 to 8 inches. The entire show will last 20 minutes and 45 seconds.“Right now it looks like dirt and mortar type of stuff,” Miller said. “The end production is really showmanship and show business. You need to have the feel of show business and willingness, ability to do the physical work. We start wiring the stuff with 2,000 electrical connections that we have to make up in a few hours and everything is tested four or five times.”Miller said it’s not about the number of shells as much as size ratios.“This show is choreographed around music,” he said. “It’s all timed by computer so that when the radio starts playing music, the radio station transmits a separate channel to us with the cues. So when (the music) is hitting ‘rockets red glare’ there will be red shells, and so on. ‘Bombs bursting in air’ usually will be with titanium salutes. You have an artistic interpretation of music catering to the product. So it’s assembled as a whole package. Time is very much the essence.“There is full variety of sizes. I have the first 29 cues in place,” Miller said, looking at one pile of shells. “It’s timed down to the second for the show. We fire 40 shells in the first 28 seconds.”Mike Lamb can be reached at 760-256-4127 or mlamb@desert dispatch.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @mlambdispatch.